Tragic Metaphors
by GunBunnyCentral
Summary: Myth spills into reality, with deadly consequences...
1. Helen and Paris

****

Title: Tragic Metaphors I: Helen and Paris  
**Author:** Margaret Brown, aka Andromeda Valentine  
**Fandom:** Andromeda  
**Pairing:** Rommie/Tyr, shades of Rommie/Dylan  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Status:** New (05/31/03); Complete  
**Archive:** Yes to list archives, anyone else please ask first.  
**Feedback:** Yes, please!!  
**E-mail address for feedback:** andromeda_valentine@hotmail.com  
**Series/Sequel:** Part One of the 'Tragic Metaphors' Series  
**Other Websites:** Crimson Redd -   
**Disclaimers:** Not mine - Tribune's. I just enjoy making them suffer on occasion...

Summary: Maybe Helen wasn't so stupid after all...

Notes: Inspired by a myth drabble challenge I saw on LiveJournal - to write a drabble with a mythological theme. I chose the fun little Helen/Paris/Menelaus triangle from the saga of the Trojan War... (Helen was married to Menelaus, but fell in love with Paris, who stole her away to Troy and thus started the Trojan War... Troy lost, and Menelaus dragged Helen back to Sparta kicking and screaming...)

200 words, a double-drabble, because the Muses love Tyr/Rommie/Dylan angst...

Warnings: angst, character death...

********************

She'd always thought Helen of Troy was stupid - why give up everything for love, only to end up right back where you started?

Then *he* came to her one night, with whispered words and honeyed promises. She'd expected to be played for a fool, but it hadn't happened - in fact, the bond between them was more genuine than either of them had been prepared for.

They'd known it couldn't last - there was no way it would be allowed to - though they'd sought a safe haven elsewhere.

It got even worse after they went public. Dylan's too-fragile sanity had snapped under the weight of jealousy and betrayal, driving him to extremes no one could have anticipated.

They'd left, hoping to ease the tension, but he'd come after them like a man possessed. She'd feared him then, for the first time.

And so she'd known it could only come down to this moment - cradling her dead lover, her Paris, while staring down the barrel of the forcelance pointed at her by her very own Menelaus...

She vows to die rather than return as his slave, and in the last moment before oblivion takes her, she realizes something...

Maybe Helen wasn't so stupid after all... Just... brave...


	2. Klytemnestra Unbound

****

Title: Tragic Metaphors II: Klytemnestra Unbound  
**Author:** Margaret Brown, aka Andromeda Valentine  
**Fandom:** Andromeda  
**Pairing:** Rommie/Tyr, shades of Rommie/Dylan  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Status:** New (06/02/03); Complete  
**Archive:** Yes to list archives, anyone else please ask first.  
**Feedback:** Yes, please!!  
**E-mail address for feedback:** andromeda_valentine@hotmail.com  
**Series/Sequel:** Part Two of the 'Tragic Metaphors' series (There *may* be others, who knows...)  
**Other Websites:** Crimson Redd -   
**Disclaimers:** Not mine - Tribune's. I just enjoy making them suffer on occasion...

Summary: She'd read the myth, but never understood it...

Notes: Inspired by a myth drabble challenge I saw on LiveJournal - to write a drabble with a mythological theme. I chose the fun little Helen/Paris/Menelaus triangle from the saga of the Trojan War, and it demanded a sequel...

For those unfamiliar with the myth I'm pulling from here, it's an aside to the Trojan War saga. Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaus (the husband of Helen) - he married Helen's twin Klytemnestra. When Paris stole Helen away, Agamenon was bound by his oath to stand with Menelaus against anyone attempting to come between him and Helen. Unfortunately for Agamemnon, even getting out to sea to reach Troy required the sacrifice of his oldest daughter Iphigenia, Klytemnestra's favorite. Klytemnestra never forgave or forgot, and Agamemnon met a very bloody end upon his return home after the war...

Also, Kassandra was a Trojan preistess of the god Apollo, given the gift of prophecy but cursed never to be believed. Agamemnon claimed her as a prize of war, and Klytemnestra supposedly killed her along with him...

200 words again, another double-drabble, because the Muses got chatty...

Warnings: angst, character death...

********************

She'd read the myth, but never understood it. Could the sacrifice of a child, ostensibly for a good cause, *really* drive a mother to cold, bloody vengeance?

That was before Dylan had returned, and she'd realized what he'd done, that he'd sacrificed an innocent for his own ambitions.

It had struck her like a blow - odd, for a being so typically unemotional - and the surge of grief, rage, and hatred that came after literally blew several of her circuits.

She'd finally understood Klytemnestra, then. Her avatar - her *sister* - was gone, destroyed by Dylan's pride and jealousy, and he was going to pay for it in blood. 

It had been pitifully easy, too - the only one who even *tried* to stop her was Trance. She'd considered furthering the tragic metaphor and dispatching the woman like the Kassandra she was, but decided she had no real cause. 

Not even Harper spoke against her, though that may have been simple fear. Still, something in his expression said otherwise, for he'd loved *her* too...

And Captain Valentine?

She could have sworn Beka actually smiled when her holographic projection had stood over Dylan's lifeless body - Klytemnestra gloating over the corpse of Agamemnon - before turning to face her.

"Captain Valentine, you have command..."


End file.
